Solomon Perel

Solomon Perel (also known as Shlomo Perel or Solly Perel) died on February 2, 2023.

(Solomon in the Hitler Youth during the War and after the War)

Born on April 21,1925 he was a German-born Israeli Author and Motivational Speaker. He was born to a German-Jewish family in Peine, Germany and managed to escape persecution by the Nazis by masquerading as an Ethnic German.

His life story is told in the 1990 film “Europa Europa” which was loosely based on his Autobiography “Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon” (I Was Hitler Youth Salomon). He also made several visits to various schools to tell his story.

In 1935 his Family fled the Nazis in Germany and went to Lodz, Poland. When the Germans invaded western Poland in 1939 Solomon fled to the Soviet-Occupied part of eastern Poland and eventually went to an Orphanage in Grodno, Belarus, USSR.

When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 he fled the Orphanage and when the Germans (the 12th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht) caught him he convinced them that he wasn’t Jewish, but a Volksdeutscher (an Ethnic German living outside of Germany.)

Since he could speak Russian and German he became their Interpreter. He even participated in the interrogation of Joseph Stalin's Son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, when he was captured. When a German Doctor tried to rape him and saw he was Jewish the Doctor had him sent to a Hitler Youth Boarding School (not turning him in as Jewish since then the Doctor would be killed for being Homosexual.)

Solomon was drafted into the Germany Army at the end of the War and in April 1945 was captured by the US Army without seeing battle. He was released the next day and went looking for his Family back in Poland.

He learned that his Father died of starvation in the Lodz Ghetto, his Mother was killed in a Gassing Truck in 1944, his Sister was shot on a Death March, his Brother Itzhak survived the War in the USSR and his other Brother David survived and was in Palestine (Israel.)

Solomon went to Israel and served in the 1948 Arab-Israel War. After the Army he became a Businessman. In 1959 he married his Wife, Dvora and had 2 Sons.

Solomon did not return to Germany until 1985.

He died in Israel on February 2, 2023 at the age of 97.